Agents of the Spanish National Police, in a joint operation with the US FBI, have arrested a cyber-fraudster in Madrid who defrauded 2,500,000 euros from US multinational companies.
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The arrested man, who has entered provisional detention, had a network of collaborators in Germany, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United States.
The modus operandi consisted of impersonating identities -both physical and legal- to order dental products from companies that supplied this type of material, whose shipments were diverted to countries such as Bahrain or Kuwait.
The person under investigation, from his home in Madrid, was directly in charge of placing fraudulent orders and handled an enormous volume of information that he obtained through open sources and social engineering techniques.
The agents have carried out two searches - in which FBI agents have also participated - as a result of which cash, electronic devices and numerous economic and banking documentation related to the investigated criminal activity have been seized.
The investigations began when agents from the Central Cybercrime Unit of the National Police - thanks to the collaboration with the FBI of the city of Memphis - became aware of the presence in Madrid of an individual specialized, for years, in cyber-scams that he committed. in United States.
The person under investigation impersonated both physical and legal identities, normally from dental clinics or logistics companies, to order hygienic-dental material from international companies that supply this type of product.
The shipments were diverted to Spanish hotels where he did not stay and, from there, to countries like Bahrain or Kuwait, which were the final destinations.
To do this, he used his cybernetic and social engineering knowledge, masking his identity and geolocation by connecting the devices to the public Wi-Fi networks of the various lodging establishments where he stayed for these purposes.
The illegal activity has generated a fraud of some 2,500,000 euros and has affected multiple international companies, most of them American, from the dental or logistics sector.
The modus operandi consisted, first of all, of obtaining information through open sources and social networks from dental clinics located anywhere in the world and/or from their doctors.
In this way, he found out who the clinics' suppliers were –international hygienic-dental material companies- to then place orders by usurping their identity.
Once the order for the products was made, they charged the payment to the accounts they already had from the clients and promised to send the merchandise to the destinations that were listed in the databases as usual reception places.
The arrested man managed to get the order and tracking numbers of the shipments in such a way that, from the website of the logistics company or by telephone, he managed to change the place of reception of the material to different hotels.
Finally, he contracted reservations in said establishments in the name of the usurped affiliations of the doctors to confirm that the merchandise was going to be picked up by its original recipient.
However, he later canceled them and hired a different logistics company that was in charge of picking up the order at the hotels to finally send it to countries in the Middle East.
The person investigated, who lived in Madrid, was in charge of directly carrying out fraudulent orders for prosthetic-dental material. In addition, he handled a large volume of information that allowed him to coordinate each operation, as well as a very intense flow of communications on a daily basis.
His main collaborator was based in the German city of Mannheim where he carried out his legal activity as a dentist, although he held a relevant position in the economic and financial field.
For this reason, they had the legal coverage of commercial companies, bank accounts in both countries, and catering businesses that gave the illegal activity a legal appearance and facilitated the laundering of the profits obtained with it.
On the other hand, in Bahrain there was another of his trusted persons, whose function was the reception of fraudulently acquired merchandise for its subsequent distribution and/or sale.
Finally, the agents have arrested the main person under investigation and have carried out two searches in which FBI agents sent to our country for this purpose have also participated.
As a result of the searches, cash, electronic devices and numerous economic and banking documentation related to the criminal activity investigated have been intervened. ■
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